A survey from 2007 to 2009 in 135 countries by Gallups revealed that 16% of the worlds adult population would like to leave their home country for a country of their choice. This 16% converts to 700 million people and that is more than adult population of entire North & South America!

The most desired country was found to be US, Canada, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Australia. Out of these 700 million majority would like to migrate to North america. Among the countries from where people would like to migrate, Africa tops the list along with other developing countries.

Why is this disparity between countries? Why does the grass on the other side seem to be greener always?

In this context we could say that the people from emerging nations aspire to live one day in a country as developed as US or UK. The IT/ITES revolution of this century have increased the awareness about what a developed country is all about. The standard of living, the ease of transportation and the predictability play major roles in setting a benchmark for choice of a country. People believe that sometime in future their country will emerge as a country of their dream. However, the waiting time for such transformation is huge in most of the cases. This urge of shortening the waiting time can be one of the reason for these 700 million to dream of switching the country.

Rogues

Recently Mongolia’s parliament passed a landmark package of laws to open its huge mining reserves to big foreign investment firms. Oyu Tolgoi in the Gobi Desert, near China’s border, will be the hub of Gold and Copper mining projects. Previously Canada’s Ivanhoe and Australia’s Rio Tinto faced governmental restrictions and delays since 2003 but now it can go ahead smoothly. This move could make this country one of the fastest growing in terms of GDP. The government has allowed responsible foreign firms to mine the reserves along with scrapping of the 68% windfall profits tax enforced in 2006. On top of these benefits, the firms can import 60% of the required construction manpower.

It is estimated that the life of these mines will be around 40 years with average production of 1 billion pounds of copper and 330000 ounces of gold per year! Mongolia will be in the fasttrack very soon.

At what cost?

Usually such huge and mega developments neglect the environmental hazards by focusing on the benefits for the shareholders rather than the stakeholders. Shell faced some of these problems in Nigeria in the 1990s. This was a major setback for what was known as the best company to work for. Shell was accused of unethical practices in dealing with the local environment and culture of Nigeria. Shell attracted worldwide attention for their involvement in the unfair trial and execution of the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 other Ogoni people of Nigeria.

What about Mongolia?

The new agreement will allow company only if they create and maintain a stable operational environment. Inspite of such agreements one should not forget that 30% of its population is engaged in herding and they have a unique culture.

Will this Rags to Riches story lead to another unethical case?

Rogues